Friday, November 6, 2009

ATTENTION and chocolate-pumpkin brownies

Since I started blogging again there is an issue I have been wanting to bring up and lucky for me someone wrote exactly what I wanted to say perfectly today, no preaching, no judging, just facts at "Where's The Revolution" Blog. In Praise of gluten and other yummy things.

I adore the list in this post above. It is perfect!

Since blogging again I have seen many vegan blogs (to my disappointment) that seem so restricting in terms of diet, and I even feel put-off by the lack of fun some people seem to have in exploring their lifestyle. I think if veganism is ever going to catch on at a successful rate people have to understand how much you DO have living a vegan lifestyle. Soo many foods I eat now I would never know exsisted if I never went veg. Does anyone else feel this way? (Disclaimer: I do not mean to direct this to people that for health reasons cannot eat wheat, gluten, soy, etc. Please realize I respect that for health reasons some people cannot eat certain things. This is not a post that applies to that.)

My friends ask me to cook for them all the time, they order vegan meals when we are out, are always up for veg restaurants and usually finish my meals when I don't. My mom went vegetarian after I went vegan. I want people to realize you don't have to be straight-edge or give up drinking, or cut out sugar, or even just shop at health food stores (although I do) because you are vegan.

To sum up what I feel: I am vegan but I love my fried tofu, my vodka, and my frozen meatless balls just as much as my trips to the farmer's market every week for fresh produce. I do eat almost all organic and whole foods, but I use vital wheat gluten for sausages and seitan like it's going out of style, and I could not live without veganaise. I am also a total nooche and salt whore. My mom bakes weekly and delivers her goodness to me. (She's a typical jewish mom, and if she's not shoving my fridge with food and baked goods, it severely disturbs her. Luckily, she totally gets the vegan thing.) It's not about restrictions, it's what makes you happy and what works for you to enjoy life while doing your part for animals and the environment and your own health at the same time.

5 comments:

Your Mom is too cute! I wish my mom would bake, but she hates baking :-/

I completely agree with your post. What really gets me is that some people (my co-workers!) think that vegans ALWAYS eat healthy. I do eat a healthy diet, but I love my fries, my vegan mayo, my vegan cake and my beer & wine, thank you very much. I also eat so many more foods that I've never even heard of before I went vegan, and there are many more to discover - I can't really talk about restriction, we have abundance!

OH I COULDN'T AGREE MORE!!!!!!!!!!! I get tired of people saying... "But it's fried? I thought you were vegan?" Uh, yes, I like fried foods - and I'm vegan, the two CAN co-exist - and I love all of the above... whisky, mayo, french fries, white bread, all of it!!

You TOTALLY inspired me to get all fired up and write my own rant - yes, I probably borrowed ideas liberally from yours, but hopefully not in a weird stalker-plagerizing sort of way - basically my thoughts were running exactly the SAME!!!!

About Me

I am a vegan (4+ years) who owns a fabulous women's jewelry and accessories store in downtown Northamton, MA. (Where I also live) I was valedictorian of Lynn University in South Florida in 2007. I am a huge fan of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and Fountains of Wayne. As well as Grey Goose, LOST, good beer and wine, yoga, pilates, delicious food, Northampton, Dublin, Spain, NYC, beautiful jewelry, amazing clothes, nude art, Malcolm Gladwell books, Woody Allen films, South Beach, men, and The Wizard of Oz.